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Professor Emeritus Jerome Dobson was recently featured in an article from the University Daily Kansan highlighting his research on the topography of Kansas. Surprisingly, Dobson discovered that Kansas was only the seventh flattest state with Florida taking top honors in that category. Illinois, North Dakota, and Louisiana ranked second, third and fourth respectively as the flattest states in the country.

Dobson’s co-author of the study, Josh Campbell, polled individuals to see which state they believed was the flattest; 33% of respondents believed Kansas to be the flattest state while only 23% said Florida. Campbell also discovered that 77% of the overall respondents in the survey and 62% of the respondents from Florida had no idea that Florida was the flattest state in the United States.

For the citizens of Kansas, or people who travel the state widely, this research finding is not a surprise. From the jutting river bluffs along parts of the Kansas River, to the lovely rolling Flint Hills of central Kansas and to the desert- like dunes in southwestern Kansas the cliche' of pure flatness is just not accurate. Dobson and Campbell have done their part to shatter stereotypes about the perceived flatness of the state with this fascinating study. Congratulations to both for setting the record straight. One may just hear a collective sigh from Kansans now that there is some solid research to back up what they always knew to be the truth; the state is more geographically diverse than was previously suspected.